The hotel industry provides rooms to millions of travelers each year. Travelers may encounter delays in checking in and/or checking out of a hotel. When there are more customers desiring to check in or check out than employees available to assist them, a waiting line for check-in or check-out is likely. Check-in delays may be particularly frustrating for visitors to casino resort hotels, who are often anxious to begin their gaming experience.
One method that a resort casino has used to attempt to decrease long check-in lines has been to use a portable hand-held check-in device. Such a device, referred to as the EXPRESS CHECK-IN developed by INTER-AMERICAN DATA/LODGING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (IAD/LMS), enables hotel employees to check-in guests quickly and to give the guests room assignments based on swiping a credit card. The device uses hand-held wireless technology, and communicates in real-time over the known SPECTRUM24 wireless infrastructure to an AS/400-based property management system. Information concerning this device may be available at http://www.symbol.com/news/pressreleases/press_releases_wirelesslans—8.html.
One disadvantage of this device is that the system can only be operated by a hotel employee. As with conventional check-in procedures, the number of incoming or outgoing customers may exceed the number of employees equipped with the device. Thus, waiting lines are not likely to be eliminated in all cases.
It has also been proposed, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,101,477, that a hotel guest perform check-in without assistance from hotel employees by using a kiosk that is operated with smartcards carried by the hotel guests. Among the disadvantages of this proposal are the costs of providing and maintaining the kiosk.